Chicks Thru the Mail – Part 2: Bittersweet

The babies have
arrived and you can be sure that I’ll be posting pictures soon. I have a big pile of fluffy, peeping
sweetness under my brooder lights right now and I’m thrilled about that. But things did not go entirely as planned or
expected, so I must tell that story first.

As I mentioned in a
previous post, I ordered my chicks from My
Pet Chicken, an internet poultry and poultry product merchant with a good
reputation. One of their claims to fame is that you can order small numbers of
chicks. Most hatcheries only ship large numbers of chicks because they need a
certain number to maintain thermal mass so the chicks don’t get too cold. My
Pet Chicken ships with a “heat source” which is basically a fancy name for one
of those pouches that generates heat due to a chemical reaction. I chose to go
that route because I could choose a wide variety of breeds all at once to start
my flock. While most of the breeds I chose are available locally, finding them
all at once would be difficult.

My chicks hatched
and were shipped Priority Mail from Ohio last Monday. I fully expected them to
arrive at my post office by Tuesday morning.
Only the Post Office handles chicks, by the way. FedEx & UPS won’t
ship live animals. Something I did not know and that was not made clear on the
My Pet Chicken website (though it is very clear on the USPS web site) is that
Priority Mail is guaranteed to arrive “within 72 hours” of when it is mailed.
Keep in mind that 72 hours is the outer boundary for chick survival without
food or water.

I was concerned
when the chicks didn’t arrive on Tuesday and was very concerned when they hadn’t come by Wednesday. My chicks did not arrive until Thursday. Five were dead on receipt and one more died
within a few hours of receipt. Two more died during the course of the
afternoon. Two more died Thursday night. I lost nine of sixteen chicks within a
day of receipt. I was devastated.

As I discussed in
my May 30 post, I also had three Silkie chicks on order at Houle’s Forest Lake
store, and when I went to Houle’s on Friday, I was able to get some additional “spur
of the moment” chicks. Thus, a week into this, I have 20 happy, healthy, lively
chicks – seven from My Pet Chicken and thirteen from Houle’s. Houle’s, by the way, gets their
chicks from an out-of-state hatchery – through the mail.

In the meantime,
I’ve had several conversations with the folks at My Pet Chicken. They honestly
seem to be as disturbed about this as I am. I can report this about my shipment:
1-For reasons nobody can explain, it took three days for the chicks to arrive
here from Ohio. In that same period they report that they shipped chicks to
California that arrived overnight. Also, they’ve told me that nobody else reported
dead chicks from their Monday shipment. 2-The weather during the time the
chicks were shipping was unusually cool. 3-The heat source was left out of my
shipping box, thus the chicks spent the first three days of their lives at room
temperature or cooler. Considering these
three facts, I’m surprised any of the
chicks survived.

My Pet Chicken has
refunded me for the dead chicks and a prorated shipping charge. They offered to
ship more chicks to me. I declined.

That’s the story.
The epilogue is that I am enjoying my babies tremendously. I spend way too much
of my day just watching them. The My Pet Chicken originals are a week old today
and are already developing little wing feathers. After the rocky start things
are going to be OK!

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Whew! I think that pretty much covers it!

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Mission Statement

Hi! I’m Randy and this is my chicken blog. I write it, edit it, take the pictures, feed the chickens, hug the chickens, etc. I blog because a few years ago, I got these chickens…I had no idea when I got my first chickens that I would get attached to them and become this sentimental, crazy old chicken guy. I had no idea that each chicken would have its own personality, that chickens had such a huge range of vocalizations that they literally “talk” to each other, that they have this amazing, intricate social structure, or that there would be so much drama in the coop—love, conflict, friendship, sex, motherhood, anxiety—a virtual soap opera playing out before my eyes every day.

So I write these little vignettes about my birds that are mostly whimsical but also mostly true. In the process of telling my stories I also pass along a variety of views and opinions which are completely my own. Please also bear in mind that the information I share regarding my care of my chickens has come from my experience caring for my flock. I’m not a veterinarian and I have had no formal education in any kind of chickenology.

There are a few facts that I hope to get across to anybody who regularly reads my blog:

1.My chickens are really cool.

2.All chickens are really cool.

3.The majority of chickens being raised for meat or egg production, in spite of their inherent coolness, are treated cruelly. You can help make changes by your purchasing habits. Educate yourself! Read labels! Check company websites!